A Fair Shake of The Twilight Saga

Admittedly, New Moon is abysmal and doing Breaking Dawn in two parts was needless, but the original film is stylish, brisk, and atmospheric. Eclipse is a return to form by blotting out its plodding predecessor and dishing up new trouble.

I've always liked stories about werewolves, vampires and humans that get caught up in the mix. There is an allegorical quality and lasting mystique to these fanged and furry abominations. At its center, The Twilight Saga is a dark, earnest and spunky romance.

I was 18 when these movies came out, still in the thick of my own adolescent emotions, making me able to empathize with the gushy feelings that people experience around that time. My significant other and I also made it "our thing" to watch the films as "nice dates."

But they did give me this sweet pair of contact lenses.

The author, Stephanie Meyer, gets a lot of flack for putting a new spin on vampires and whatnot, making them into sparkly porcelain, and borrowing atypical supernatural elements from superhero comics and lending them to these pale bloodsuckers.

However I did find some of her controversial twists to be on the neat side. Moreover, every character has just a pinch of depth to be intriguing (though I would prefer more). Poor usage of run-time is a central problem with these movies; very little actually happens.

I am totally just sitting here, waiting for the next movie to start...

The action is satisfactory and I like the more 'normal' (albeit quite large) wolves versus the man-wolf that cinema is so familiar with. The special effects also improve with each film. One minor gripe is how the sequels (especially New Moon) abandoned the artsy, eerie, cinematic, frosty quality of the original, though Breaking Dawn satisfyingly resembles it.

aka The Twilight Saga: New--wait--No Art Direction

In closing, I don't think the story ever takes itself too seriously and I don't think there is any bad acting and can feel confident in saying that the cast would have been able to deliver with deeper roles. The Twilight Saga is a tepid romantic fantasy. It certainly attracts a lot of blind hate when it is actually rather enjoyable.